The invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More specifically, the invention relates to network elements that can process data of different protocols within data transmission signals.
With the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), the need for high-speed transmission of data including video and audio has continued to increase. Moreover, in addition to the demand for higher bandwidth, there has also been an increased need for various types of services that employ different protocols. For example, certain customers of high-speed networks may want to employ a High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol, while other customers may want to employ various types of an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol. Additionally, other types of protocols that customers may desire include a voice over Internet Protocol (IP) protocol.
Network elements are used to route or switch data of these different protocols across such high-speed networks. Examples of the types of data signals that can be transmitted and received by these network elements include Digital Signal (DS)-1 and DS-3 signals, which include a number of channels. Examples of other types of data signals that can be transmitted and received by these network elements signals based on the Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standard or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) standard. Moreover, these network elements typically include a number of line cards that include a number of ports to receive and transmit these data from. In order to accommodate the different protocol types, conventional network elements are designed and provisioned such that a given port on a given line card processes data of a particular protocol. In other words, a particular port to tied to a particular type of protocol. Disadvantageously, this limitation precludes the handling of data of different types of protocols for a given port of a network element.
A method and apparatus for processing data packets of differing protocols across different data channels and control channels within signals are described. In an embodiment, a method includes receiving at least one data signal, wherein the at least one data signal includes a number of channels. The number of channels includes data channels and control channels, such that each of the data channels can include different protocols and different configurations for the different protocols and such that the control channels includes control data for controlling the at least one data signal. Additionally, the method includes processing data packets in each of the number of channels in a predefined order.